Authorities in Raleigh, North Carolina, say an 11-year-old girl was killed Saturday when she was hit by a pickup truck pulling a float during the city’s annual Christmas parade. A 20-year-old male has been taken into custody for driving the pickup truck.
WRAL-TV reported that Landen Christopher Glass, 20, of Raleigh, was arrested and charged with felony death by motor vehicle, felony careless and reckless driving, felony improper equipment, felony unsafe movement, and felony carrying a firearm in a parade. Glass will not be speaking out, per a relative who spoke with the TV station.
The girl, whose identity has not yet been revealed, was reportedly a student at Raleigh’s CC & Company Dance Complex.
WTVD reports that CC & Company Dance Complex owner Christy Curtis issued a statement late Saturday. TV station reports that the driver, identified as Glass, told police that he was going slowly when he lost control of the truck and hit the child. WTVD reports that the GMC Denali truck lost control while towing one of two CC & Company floats. The driver reportedly sounded his horn and yelled at pedestrians to move out of the way.
I saw them coming down the street really fast, and you could tell they weren’t gassing; instead, it looked like they were rolling, kind of rolling down the street,” paradegoer Melissa Stephens told WTVD. People were “freaking out” and “yelling at people to get out of the way” because “you can tell they were panicking.”
WTVD reports that nobody else who took part in the parade was hurt. After the incident, the parade was called off.
According to The News & Observer, CC & Company entered two floats into the parade and had members of the company perform between the floats. According to the newspaper, the truck that was towing the second float lost control.
Teenager and dancer Olivia Bruce said, “We started dancing in the parade, and then all of a sudden, we just heard a lot of honking.” This was reported in the News & Observer. The truck was almost on our backs when we turned around, so we backed away.
The truck sped up, came to a stop, and a body was lying on the ground. It came awfully close (to me). In a matter of seconds, I had gotten out of the way and narrowly avoided being struck.
According to WRAL, Glass’ Instagram account featured photos of him competing in dance competitions on behalf of CC & Company. It is not clear this year in what capacity he is associated with the company.
The News & Observer reported that the police were inspecting the truck after the incident, but that they have not yet released any details.
The day “began with such joy,” Baldwin said in a statement. It warmed my heart to see so many happy children along the parade route. We are all heartbroken by this terrible news and are thinking of the victim and her loved ones at this time. The situation is tragic.
We are inconsolable. Curtis commented, “Today our hearts are broken. Our dance family is a close-knit community.” We are cooperating fully with the police as they investigate the incident.
WTVD reported that the collision happened at 10:14 a.m. EST, during Raleigh’s 78th annual Christmas parade, citing information from the Raleigh Police Department.
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